The Doomsday Machine
by SenatorBonteri
Summary: An AU climax to the Clone Wars series... which I think COULD have worked, in canon.


A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away…

Back when the clone wars were still going on, Lux Bonteri, the Senator of Onderon, had just gotten married to the former Jedi padawan, Ahsoka Tano, a few months ago. They were very happy living with each other, and each loved the other very, very, much. But one day, Lux was walking through the streets of his home planet when he came across an unwelcome sight... The solar sailor belonging to his mother's murderer was docked in the nearby landing pad. He didn't need to be a Jedi to know that Count Dooku was somewhere on the planet, if not close by.

Dooku sensed Bonteri's presence. He went to find him, and emerged from behind the solar sailor. "Senator Bonteri. Pleased that you could join me." Lux froze stiff in his tracks, since Ahsoka wasn't with him, and he didn't know what to do now that he was face to face with a Sith Lord. Dooku continued and said, "It is a shame that you don't have your mother to defend you." He said it as if he was genuinely serious with a sigh yet did not regret killing her. Lux did his best to hide his anger and started to back off, slowly. But Count Dooku smirked as he sent a blast of force lightning into the young politician, who screamed at the top of his lungs, in pain. Then the Count stopped for a few seconds. "Your screams aren't as loud as hers were, if I recall correctly."

Lux slowly recovered and said in a calm but slightly gruff tone of voice... "You… monster." He couldn't help but glare as he leaned on a wooden crate in the area.

Dooku ignited his red saber. "Monster? Oh, you should not have said that, Bonteri." Lux got out a purple bladed light saber he stole from a deceased force sensitive criminal, somewhere along the line of a previous adventure prior to this confrontation, even though he knew his chances of survival were slim, here. Dooku chuckled arrogantly. "Do you really think a little Senator is a match for a Sith Lord like me?"

Lux swallowed lightly. "... I don't want any trouble. But I can't let you threaten or take over my home world. Not again. Is there any way I can get you to leave peacefully?" He actually knew bargaining was most likely of no use, since the Sith were known to break their word, quite often.

"There is... something that you could do." He held the lightsaber but didn't strike just yet. "Surrender…. and your life, along with your planet's population, will be spared." Suddenly, a few of Bonteri's bodyguards entered the scene and fired at Dooku. Lux saw his chance to escape and warn the rest of the planet… and the Republic, if worse came to worse. Dooku called out, after killing off his attackers, "Coward, Bonteri! This is just the beginning!"

The next day, the republic reinforcements arrived in the Onderon system with a star cruiser or two to drop off republic troops to help the people of Onderon in this battle. Little did they know, however, that the separatists had already landed their invasion force and had placed a blockade of battleships around the planet, to prevent them from getting down there. The invasion force was made up mostly of vulture droids and a few battalions of super battle droids. Other than that, there was just one other thing… but it trumped everything else the separatists had yet invented, in terms of ground forces. It was a machine, operated from the inside by battle droids, tactical droids, and commanded by General Grievous, himself!

This machine walked on four spiderlike legs, and was almost as tall as the palace of Onderon, in terms of height. It was unquestionably enormous, and could do great damage do anything in its path. As if its size alone was not enough of a pain to deal with, it seemed to be impervious to most of the weapons thrown at it. Even proton torpedoes had very little effect damaging the surface. And from the head that towered above the body on a long metal neck, it could shoot a powerful enough laser beam to ruin just about anybody's day! The separatists had been planning to construct this technological terror since very early on, in the war. But now, it had finally been brought to life. They were testing it out on a few of the lesser planets, first. But their main target would be Coruscant, eventually. Once they had enough confidence that nothing could stand in its way, they would use it to lay the galaxy's most populous planet to waste.

Lux Bonteri looked into the distance, from the palace of Onderon's highest point, and he recognized the machine's design from when he was a separatist senator's son. He had snooped around a bit too much, when he still had his mother… and it's a good thing he did. Because, now, he could use his memory of the blueprints to tell a small band of the king's troops how to get inside the metal monster and then lead them to the control room to blow it up from the inside. It would not be an easy mission, and Lady Ahsoka Bonteri feared for her brave new husband's life.

"Lux," she said as she grabbed his shoulder, "… let me come with you! I really care that you don't get killed."

He replied in a soft voice, "I care about you in the same way, Ahsoka. You know that."

"I'm not letting you do this without my help, Lux. If we die in this fight, at least we'll go down together."

Lux smiled warmly and kissed her forehead right before he said, "You win."

Then his team set forth on their riding beasts as they city put a shield generator around the palace, where they were trying to shelter the population of the city from the battle. The army went out to face the super battle droids while the few pilots they had went out to face an onslaught of vulture droids. Lux knew of an unguarded entrance into the machine. But it would be hard to get inside unnoticed, as the mechanical operating crew inside the belly were probably scanning the craft's interior for unauthorized life forms on a regular basis.

The battle between the Onderon military and the droid army would have definitely been very much simpler… if not for the huge machine coming closer to the capitol city by the minute. But if the men made a false move, they'd likely get blasted to oblivion by the huge ray gun, or the vulture droids and tri-fighter droid ships flying above their heads. The onslaught was bad enough, but the machine was making things dang near impossible. Thankfully, the relatively small Onderon air force was able to create JUST ENOUGH of a diversion for Lux and Ahsoka to get to the machine's access point without being killed off, along with their strike team. But… they definitely suffered a few casualties, some minor and a major one, before getting to the machine. Then, when they did get there, they had to use their ascension cables to get to the machine's unguarded entrance…. Which didn't stay unguarded for long, as the heroes were detected very quickly upon getting to the hatch. They were able to get inside easily enough, with help from Ahsoka's lightsabers. But upon entering, they had to fight a few squads of battle droids and a magna guard that had been sent to try and stop them. Well, by the end of that first confrontation, There was only one or two members of the strike team left out of their original 13, excluding Lux and Ahsoka themselves. At this point, their chances of success were slim. But as the battle inside the machine was just starting, the giant mechanical terror was almost in range of the capitol city's first wall, now! The military had been retreating further and further into a dead end within the city walls, as they ran for cover from the enemy. Time was running out!

Lux had a vague recollection of where the control room was. He'd saved his grenades for when he got there…. Assuming he'd make it. Then he'd use them to blow the control room to smithereens, which would shut the whole technological monster down! But as soon as he started to lead Ahsoka and his two surviving men into the next room, they were confronted by the notorious cyborg Jedi slayer. General Grievous himself! "Ahahahahaha! It ends here, republic scum!"

This was Lux's first time seeing Grievous. He truly had no idea up until now, how nasty the separatist military leaders really were. But there was not time for deep thought! Grievous ignited his lightsabers after getting out his extra set of arms, to try and win by intimidation. Ahsoka ignited hers, in response to Grievous, and said to her husband, "Go on! Complete the mission don't worry about me!" Reluctantly, Lux did as she said and proceeded with his two men to the control room, as Ahsoka did what she had to do. DISTRACT GRIEVOUS…. And that's just what she did, rather well.

As the two republic star cruisers got their reinforcements to help them deal with the separatist blockade in space, Lux and his men entered the control room… at long last. But waiting there to confront them for the last time was a paid mercenary who had agreed to make sure nothing went wrong in there, for the separatist droid army. "Well, hello there, Senator Bonteri." This was also the first time Lux had ever come face to face with Cad Bane. The bounty hunter had two commando droids to help him. But Lux ordered his men to fire at their heads right after hearing Bane say, "One false move and you're a dead man!" The droids went down, but Cad Bane shot at Lux's collar bone… and had he hit two inches lower, the shot would have been fatal for the intrepid young politician. But the men who accompanied Lux overpowered the commondo droids with just enough strength leftover to use their grenades to blow the main control panel… and sure enough… that did the trick!

The giant, terrible, Machine powered off and collapsed in a heap, crumbling into the dust, right as it was about to reach the point where the capitol city was toast! Upon seeing that his machine was history, Grievous rushed past the former Jedi padawan and made for the nearest emergency exit… to escape capture ONCE AGAIN. The onderon military then launched a charge and wiped out the super battle droids that were previously forcing them into a corner… where they would be fatally trapped like rats in a barrel. Then the republic cruisers got through the separatist blockade and deployed reinforcements. Dooku and Grievous flew away in the same ship, as they knew the battle was lost… and all the money they had spent on their giant war machine could now officially be considered WASTED!

But Cad Bane refused to go down without a fight. He quickly shot Lux's men in spots that would make sure they were either fatally injured or out of action. But then Lux took out his own pistols and fired a few shots at the bounty hunter. Bane dodged as he started to hover around with his rocket boots… then he returned fire by throwing a thermal detonator at Lux. Lux managed to leap to safety just on time… but he was flung backwards by the shockwave of the explosion and rammed up against the wall in back of him! Then Cad Bane sprung on Lux and started to choke him. In this moment, Lux struggled to get Bane's filthy mitts off of his neck with one hand… as the other hand pulled out his hero's lightsaber… and ignited it with the blade pointed at Bane's chest! With that, the bounty hunter gave on last surprised look… then got flung out the window of the control room by a huge blast of the force that came from Ahsok Tano, who had just arrived to back up her beloved. Then the bounty hunter fell lifeless, to the cold hard ground several stories below.

The day was won! And with that, Lux and Ahsoka gave each other a deep firm kiss on the lips.. This was the second time the duo of lovers had played an important role in saving the planet! But their loving company was, each to the other, their own reward.

THE END.


End file.
